Red Sox 7, Rays 4: Boston blasts Tampa Bay ace Price

Saturday

Oct 5, 2013 at 7:51 PM

BOSTON -- If his clothes were any indication, David Ortiz seemed to have a feeling he was going to have a date with the spotlight on Saturday night. His suit was black, but his tie was bright red, his belt was bright red and his shoes were bright red

Brian MacPherson Journal Sports Writer brianmacp

BOSTON -- If his clothes were any indication, David Ortiz seemed to have a feeling he was going to have a date with the spotlight on Saturday night. His suit was black, but his tie was bright red, his belt was bright red and his shoes were bright red.

"He came in and told me, 'I wore my 'A' game today because I'm going to be doing interviews after the game,'" a jubilant David Ross said.

As implied, if not promised, Ortiz hit a pair of home runs on Saturday night off David Price, a hard-throwing lefty who had allowed two home runs to lefthanded hitters during the entire regular season. The two home runs -- the first multi-homer game of his storied postseason career -- highlighted a ferocious Boston assault on the Tampa Bay ace in a 7-4 win in Game Two of the American League Division Series.

Clay Buchholz will take the mound for Boston at Tropicana Field on Monday with a chance to clinch a three-game sweep of the series. The Red Sox have won seven of the eight postseason series in their history in which they've taken a two-games-to-none lead -- the lone exception being the 1986 World Series. They've finished off the series win all three times they've taken a 2-0 lead in a Division Series, and not once have they even required a Game Five.

[red-sox-sweep-poll.html]

Tampa Bay certainly isn't about to concede even on the brink of elimination, not after playing back-to-back elimination games just to earn the right to face the Red Sox in the ALDS.

"I'm really looking forward to Game 5 here," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "Boston this time of year is lovely, and I'm looking forward to coming back in a few days."

To extend the series, Tampa Bay will have to find a way to do what Price and Matt Moore could not do. Alex Cobb and Jeremy Hellickson both will have to stifle a Boston offense with power and professional plate approaches up and down the batting order.

Not even Price -- who came into Saturday night with a 2.93 ERA in 20 career starts against the Red Sox -- was able to do that, something that became apparent as soon as Jacoby Ellsbury hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the first inning.

"The beauty of our team is that they look at each night as an individual challenge -- 'How are we going to attack a given pitcher?'" Boston manager John Farrell said.

How the Red Sox attacked Price on Saturday night actually wasn't that different than the way they've tried to attack him in the past. Nothing about the repertoire of David Price ever has been subtle. Price throws mid-90s heat in the strike zone. The Red Sox knew they were going to see mid-90s heat in the strike zone. They knew they couldn't wait around. They knew trying to work counts was a futile exercise.

"We've seen him at his best this year," Boston hitting coach Greg Colbrunn said. "You just have to take advantage if he does miss out over the plate."

The more Price attacked the strike zone, the more the Red Sox attacked right back. Nine of the first 15 hitters swung at either the first or second pitch.

"We kind of went away from our normal approach to try to work the count and get the starting pitcher out of the game," second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. "We had to hit."

"The reason why we see pitches is we look for strikes," Ross said. "David Price throws a lot of strikes. When he was throwing strikes, we were swinging. We didn't even have a hitters' meeting. These guys know their plan."

And when Price missed out over the plate, the Red Sox took advantage.

"His fastball wasn't like it used to be," Ortiz said. "It wasn't a bad fastball -- but not 96, 98 like he used to. It wasn't like you normally expect."

Pedroia already had hit a sacrifice fly with an emphatic blast to center field -- an ominous sign for Price -- when Ortiz stepped to the plate with two outs in the first inning. Price missed with his first pitch and then threw a cutter down but over the middle, and Ortiz blasted it into the Red Sox bullpen. It was just the third home run Price had allowed to a lefthanded hitter since Opening Day.

Two innings later, Ross -- in the lineup specifically because he'd hit two home runs off Price in the past -- scraped a leadoff double off the Green Monster. Ellsbury followed with a jam-shot double over third base to score Ellsbury.

An inning later, perhaps still thinking about a Shane Victorino takeout slide from the previous inning, Zobrist threw what should have been an easy double-play relay off the face of the roof of the Red Sox dugout. Stephen Drew made him pay for the sloppiness with a triple off the Green Monster -- a triple made possible by more sloppiness from David DeJesus in left field.

Ortiz hit his second home run to lead off the eighth inning, a titanic blast just inside the Pesky Pole that he watched without leaving the batter's box. In all, Price surrendered seven runs in seven-plus innings, his worst start of the year.

John Lackey yielded four earned runs in 5 1/3 innings, walking three and striking out six. Craig Breslow induced a game-saving double play in the seventh inning, and Koji Uehara closed the game out with a dominant ninth.

Twitter: @brianmacp

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.